Need to seperate stuff from a rock

[APISTOBORELLI]

I got a small piece of rock a couple of weeks ago. On it are red shrooms(5), yellow colonial polyps(4), a medium size piece of Anthelia(I think), and some brown with peach center zoos(6-8). I want to spread it all out but have no idea how. Breaking the rock will be difficult as most of it is covered with something. Anyone with knowledge on how it is done want to pay a visit? I heard the Zoas will make you sick, so I don't want to risk my first try alone. I'd be willing to part with some of it as a fee. Heres a pic.....

 

[B.rian]

chisel the rock. i just did this today. works pretty good, just glue the chiseled pieces wherever you want them.

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

The stuff is far to close together for that. That was my first thought.

 

[naturebatslast]

Use a clean chisel/razor at the base of the critter you want to remove. Try to "shave" the rock, so when the critter is off, it's still attached to a small peice of rock. Just try to get the top layer or two of the rock. Everything on that rock is soft, so you should be able take whatever you want off the rock. Reattaching, just use thick superglue(cyanoacrylate glue), drying the base of the critter and the surface of the rock you want to attach to. I've heard some thing on zoanthids squirting, be honestly, it sounds uncommon. Worse comes to worse, wear glasses and exam gloves. Maybe sing to it while your hacking it off
NBL

 

[naturebatslast]

Don't be afraid, I don't think you could really hurt anything. Anyway, if it's not done clean, you have regrowth coming back after you hack it.

 

[Jocko]

Yeah zoas contain a fairly potent neurotoxin. So that's a thumbs up on wearing the gloves.

 

[NateHanson]

If you really hack at stuff to try to cut it clear off the rock it can take a while to come back. If you can get a screwdriver between two things on the rock, you can split them apart, and I think that's a lot easier and it hurts the corals less.

It's also easier if you split the rock, because if you do manage to get a softy of the rock without mangling it, it's hard to get it to attach because you can't glue them. If there's even a little piece of rubble left on there you can glue that to the next place you want to put it.

Nate

 

[~Flighty~]

wear goggles and try to do stuff underwater. it is bad news if you get stuff in your eyes and zoas can squirt far if you squeze them. All of that stuff can be removed from the rock by scraping it with your fingernail, but I agree that getting a chip of rock makes it easiest to mount imediately.

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Thanks all, I'll keep you updated.